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The aim of this thesis is to look at brands and branding, from a female perspective. In many ways,brands are like people. They have to have a name, not just to be identified by, but also to containeverything the brand means. Through branding, and through negotiations with the user, the brandtakes on meaning, beyond the function of the product it offers. A shirt is not just a shirt, a car is notjust a car, they are signs that the user can use to express him- or herself, and that are indicative ofwho he/she is, or wants to be. Even though the adverts prey on fear, the brand can create a sense ofloyalty in the user, not unlike that the user would feel for his best friend, by involving itself incauses, the user cares about.Skønhedskultur af Lærke Worm Thomsen 3One such brand is soap manufacturer, Dove. Aside from their line of soaps and lotions, Dove hascreated Campaign for Real Beauty, which aims to improve women’s self-worth. And they need it.Constantly bombarded with images of tall, slender, beautiful, young women, the average woman’sself-worth plummets, and she becomes afraid of social rejection because she does not fit thisimpossible beauty standard. But the problem is that Dove continues to use the very same idealisedimage of women that caused the problem in the first place. However, the campaign is to strong, thatmost people don’t seem to notice the dissonance between the branding campaign, and the averageproduct ad. Dove has cemented itself as a brand that wants women to know that they are beautiful,regardless of the fact that accepting that she is beautiful, a woman wouldn’t need Dove’s products.The campaign works as a small Band-Aid on a very large wound, so the question becomes: Is littleeffort better than no effort at all?